Panthers limited partner Jordan Zimmerman’s mantra to live by is, ‘You sleep when you die,’ and he has certainly been wide awake during this wild Eastern Conference quarterfinal series against the New Jersey Devils.
When Zimmerman, founder of Zimmerman Advertising, the 14th largest ad agency in the country, car mogul Michael Maroone, and several others bought the Panthers from H. Wayne Huizenga in 2001 they – along with then rookie Stephen Weiss – never thought it would take this long to return to the playoffs.
“Stephen Weiss was our selection when we bought the team,’’ Zimmerman said via phone Tuesday. “It’s amazing that it took us this long, but it’s a testament to hiring the right general manager, Dale Tallon, and coach Kevin Dineen.
“The energy in the arena the other night in those final seven seconds was unbelievable and when Tomas Fleischmann scored the empty-net goal and thousands or rats came out of the sky it was a dream come true. It took us 12 years to get it but sometimes as you know, like companies, when you build the best teams it’s worth waiting for.
“The place was packed, it was rocking, the energy was unbelievable. Hopefully, it will carry over to next season. The thing is we’ve given them some hope.’’
Zimmerman, who oversees the marketing for the Panthers, was especially pleased to see the red-clad, red-towel waving fans taking his company’s ‘We See Red,’ ad campaign to heart. Ironically, the Devils fans were waving similar red towels Tuesday night, but by the end of Florida’s wild 4-3 comeback victory they were dabbing their eyes with those same towels.
“We wanted the fans to know that we see red and believe red so when we started to make a playoff run we wanted people to would believe that this team saw red, had a vengeance and were back and ready to play hard and do whatever it takes to win,’’ said Zimmerman, who heaped praise on majority owner Cliff Viner for his unwavering support.
“Of course I’m happy but for myself and speaking for the partnership group were happier for the fans,” he said. “We have a lot of loyal fans who stayed with us over the years and believed in us, and given us opportunity after opportunity and we’ve disappointed them. Well, we’re not disappointing them now.”
Zimmerman uses his blog entitled, ‘yousleepwhenyoudie.com’, to inspire people, but right now he’s being inspired by the Panthers improbable run.

And third: If I was a Devils player, right about now I would be thinking to myself “Did the Panthers last year have good reasons to fire this guy?”.

Mr. DeBoar reminds me of the wife who is in a hospital room looking down on her bed ridden husband. The husband looks up at his wife and says “Honey, you were always there with me. You were there when I broke my arm. You were there with me when I dropped my bowling ball on my foot and smashed four of my toes. And honey, you were here with me when I sudffered my heart attack”.

HARVEY FIALKOV, a tennis-playing sportswriter who grew up in Long Island following the dynastic Islanders, is the new Panthers beat writer for the Sun Sentinel and looking forward to writing about the best professional sports team in Broward County.